A gas turbine engine (“GTE”) includes a turbine assembly that extracts energy from a flow of hot combustion gases. Turbine assemblies include one or more turbine rotor assemblies mounted on a drive shaft. Each turbine rotor assembly includes a plurality of turbine blades extending radially outward from a rim of a rotor (or disk) of the turbine rotor assembly. The hot combustion gases flowing through the turbine assembly push on the blades to rotate the rotor, and consequently the drive shaft. The rotating drive shaft is used to power a load, for example, a generator, a compressor, or a pump.
A turbine blade (blade) typically includes a root structure and an airfoil extending from opposite sides of a blade platform. The root structure of each blade is inserted into a similarly shaped slot in the rotor to secure the blade to the rotor. A cooling air supply is directed through the turbine rotor assembly to cool the assembly during operation of a GTE. The turbine rotor assembly may include components, such as retainers, to retain the blade to the rotor and to direct the flow of cooling air through desired areas of the assembly. One example of such a component is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,097 B1 Jendrix (“the '097 patent”). The '097 patent discloses forward and aft retainers that are attached to the turbine rotor to prevent the blades from moving in an axial direction and to channel the flow of cooling air through desired regions of the turbine rotor.